


Kitten Steps

by LMX



Series: Kitten Steps [1]
Category: Leverage
Genre: Alternate Universe - Werewolf, Community: leverageland, Gen, Were-Creatures
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-01-01
Updated: 2012-01-01
Packaged: 2017-11-19 03:57:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,173
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/568823
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LMX/pseuds/LMX
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Nate Ford is not comfortable in his own skin. Which is to say... he's not comfortable in either of them - the human or the lion.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Kitten Steps

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Leverageland's minibang. Originally posted on LJ.

Sophie had a long held theory that a person's comfort with their were-self grew in proportion to the amount of time they spent in their animal form.

Hardison and Parker, for example, as hereditary lycanthropes had been in and out of animal form since they were babies. Sophie had an inkling that the differences in their behaviour stemmed from Hardison spending most of his childhood with a werewolf pack, whereas she would put money on Parker having spent hers with an actual wolf pack. There was no proof, of course, and never would be.

Just like there was no proof that Eliot had spent more time than just the moon required in his leopard form. But she knew it just from looking at him; from how easy he was in the change, and in that form, how unashamedly feline and affectionate with the others, despite the fact he'd only been infected three years before. Sophie was sure he'd never run with a leopard pack before - a pard, he was constantly reminding her - whether were or natural, but he had seemed immediately at home living amongst other lycanthropes.

Nate would always be awkward in animal form, and around the others when they changed. His lion would always be a burden to him - caught from Maggie in a stupid domestic accident. He would never know, and the doctors couldn't tell him either, whether it was the lycanthropy that stopped the traditional treatments from working on Sam, and while it had never been voiced, he held that on Maggie's head, speeding along their separation. He resisted every change and hid from the others on the full moon, conflicted within himself, even as his lion revelled in being so briefly free.

Sophie had been terrified at her first change, alone and with no one to reach out to for advice. She hadn't wanted to risk going back to the man she now knew had been a werehyena, but didn't know anyone else she could go to. So she'd adapted, learned all that she could and just got on with it. She'd learned early on that, while on the nights of the full moon every sense was overwhelmed by the world around her and the animalistic nature of her hyena self, she could shift at will outside the moon and think and observe and process like herself. It was odd at first, because the hyena knew how to move its four limbs and Sophie didn't and the battle of wills that ensued felt rather like going mad, but eventually she worked out how to take a back seat and allow herself just to *be*. After fifteen years, it felt as natural as her human form, and was sometimes vastly more appealing.

This was a rare treat, tonight.

Eliot had cooked and Parker had shed her human form almost as soon as she'd gotten to the office - offending Nate's sensibilities by dropping her clothes all over the floor, but as a hereditary were her changes were cleaner than the others. She'd eaten like that, as a wolf with her nose in the bowl Eliot had pulled out with an affectionate roll of his eyes, and then curled up in the corner - which would inevitably contain a hoard of things collected from each of them without them realising by the following morning - watching them all around the table.

Hardison shed his human form as soon as he considered it polite - based on some rather arbitrary self-constructed ideals of politeness - dog-piling on top of Parker and huffing his amusement when she squirmed out from under him and clambered on top. Nate cleared his throat pointedly and Sophie was driven to an eye-roll (not for the first time) before reminding him; "They're just playing, Nate. Stop being so prudish."

It was something Nate didn't seem to understand, and he resolutely refused to talk about it. Animal form to him meant nakedness, and so being so close together in animal form was something he'd been taught to think of as indecent. One of these days Sophie was going to get hold of that lioness and shake some sense into her.

Sophie saw Eliot slink off towards the bathroom and followed him, leaving Nate with the table of dirty dishes. If he was going to try his best to make them uncomfortable then the least he could do was be useful in the meantime.

Eliot was down to just his shorts when Sophie stepped into the bathroom behind him, and he knocked the shower on before turning his back, dropping his shorts and stepping into the tub. His transformation was fairly fast, but it sounded sharp - more crack and crunch than Parker and Hardison's almost silent changes. Eliot didn't give any indication that it had hurt, but there was always a tight set to his shoulders that only eased as he showered off the signs of the change and then moved over to make room for Sophie to step in to the tub herself without ever glancing in her direction. Eliot knew the different between human nakedness and their weres. It was a distinction Parker still hadn't made, but then she was as likely to be wolf as human on any given day.

Sophie's transformation was much easier now, a well practised change rather than the ease that came from spending a long time in the other form like Eliot. It didn't hurt like it used to, and the hot water helped ease the old ache as it washed away any mess. She huffed as the steam assaulted her senses and gave Eliot a warm grin.

Eliot greeted her like they hadn't just spent the evening in each other's company, rubbing his cheek along hers briefly before jumping up onto the narrow edge of the tub and balancing with exquisite ease as he groomed his water-spiked fur with a broad tongue. Sophie reached up with over-sized paws to turn the water off and let her water-logged coat drip for a moment before jumping past Eliot onto the towel she'd laid out earlier.

It was something of a release, with the change damping down her need to look just so when her appearance by its very nature invoked something different in an observer. Vision was so much less important than any other sense, in this form. She rolled onto her back and revelled in the luxurious feeling of spiking up her fur on the terrycloth, knowing that she'd look crazed and ruffled once she was finished.

Eliot slipped past her, still damp and bedraggled with his shorter coat in clumps. Nate was stood just around the corner, but he wouldn't look to see what was making her make those happy sounds however strong his curiosity was. He wouldn't ever look in to see her with her back on the towel and four feet wiggling unabashedly in the air as she made a cursory attempt at drying herself. He still thought of that ease, that comfort, as something he couldn't have.

Eliot was squirming into the huddle with Parker and Hardison as Sophie passed Nate - her fur in happy disarray - and she sniggered to herself as Hardison squeaked and squirmed as he tried to get away from Eliot's damp coat, Parker joining in the attempt to try and lick him dry. Eliot was smaller than either of them in this form - than all four of them actually, not that they got many chances to compare him up alongside Nate - but it was still by choice that he let Parker pin him on his back and lick his chest. He could get free if he really wanted to.

Sophie turned and glanced at Nate, smelling the sweat of discomfort more than she registered the expression on his face, and shook off a little more moisture - knowing it would piss him off. Sbe was only briefly distracted by the scraps of food left on the table before charging in to pounce on the other three, scattering them with yelps and growls.

She was more heavy set than the others in this form, if not taller than the two wolves. She was pretty much a tank in comparison to Eliot's lithe form, and she herded them all back into the corner with bullish tactics, before finding a position where she could touch all three of them before settling. Parker twitched under her front paws, considering bolting out from underneath the newly formed pile, and Sophie put out warning claws - just gently - to dissuade her from moving.

Hardison was definitely first asleep - settling with a whuffling snore that made Eliot's ears twitch in aggravation - but Sophie wasn't awake long enough after that to say about the others.

Sophie woke at Eliot's soft complaint - dark outside the windows and all the lights out in Nate's apartment. She didn't move, relaxing as Eliot shifted farther into her side without any signs of anything that needed action. As she reassessed her surroundings, Sophie caught scent of Nate's lion-smell - distinct from his scent when he was in human form. She didn't react, letting Nate think she was still asleep. She didn't want to make him self-conscious if he'd finally decided to come and join them for the night.

There were no sounds of movement, but Sophie could tell that Nate was edging closer, his scent nervous and uncertain and making that same fight or flight instinct rise up in her chest as she reacted to the smell. Parker and Hardison were reacting to those same danger signals by the time he'd reached them, all stirring uneasily, and Sophie opened her eyes and turned to glare at Nate.

As much as she wanted him to feel at home with them, like this, as much as she wanted him to be a part of this stupid collection of lycanthrope life, she wasn't going to have him disturbing all of their sleep.

Her breath caught at the striking image he made in the half-light, oddly set against the backdrop of the domestic little apartment, lit in strange shadowed orange strips by the street lights through the blinds. He was so beautiful in this form, even with his head low in uncertain supplication. She didn't know who he was allowing to show dominance - Eliot had turned his back and was soothing Parker and Hardison back to sleep - but to approach them all like that was maybe the first steps towards and apology for his behaviour.

Sophie couldn't move without dislodging one of the others, so she just waited and held Nate's eyes as he approached, his scent calming a little when he wasn't immediately sent away by either of them. He crouched down near to their pile and put his head on his paws, not closing his eyes, but not holding Sophie's gaze either. He was letting her take the dominant role here. Pack mum, he was asking her permission to join them for the night. What little of it there was left - Sophie wondered how long it had taken him to get up the courage to come out here in lion form.

It wasn't going to be worth anything if he wasn't going to get in here and share in the body heat, though. Sophie shared a glance with Eliot, who dropped one last lick on Parker's and Hardison's noses and then carefully untangled himself from the pile. Nate pulled back, tense on his back legs as if considering running as Eliot approached and then circled around behind him. Nate span to watch him, backing towards the others as Eliot crowded him. It was like hitting a wall; when Nate realised he was getting close to Parker's leg he just sat down and didn't move any farther. His new position let Eliot step up close and - oh so slowly - rub his cheek down Nate's.

The expression on Nate's face when he turned to look at Sophie - while obscured by lion features - was one Sophie might have expected to see on a man caught kissing another man by his girlfriend. Sophie narrowed her eyes and chuckled quietly at the two of them. Nate's distraction gave Eliot enough time to physically wrestle him into the pile, making Parker and Hardison shift and growl at their disturbed sleep but never really rouse. Eliot pinned Nate to the ground, tangling up with Parker and Sophie as they shifted and fought briefly, waiting for him to stop struggling.

Eventually, Nate stopped. Not missing out on the opportunity to reward good behaviour, Sophie licked a stripe up his cheek and grinned at him. Eliot resettled, keeping one solid restraining paw on Nate's chest as he stared Sophie down. Parker made a series of tiny happy noises and stuck her tongue out to better scent the air before licking Nate's ear and wiggling closer to him.

Sophie fell back asleep in time with Nate's slowly easing adrenaline, and was only slightly disappointed when he was gone by morning light. Baby steps, she reminded herself. They'd get him trained up the right way soon enough.


End file.
